How to adapt to the tech of the future
Moore’s Law
American businessman, engineer, and co-founder and chair of Intel Corporation, Gordon Moore, is also known for an observation he made about the growth of technology. Originally observed in 1965, “Moore’s Law” states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years while the cost is halved. Simply put, every two years technology becomes twice as powerful at half the price. This is something we can easily see all around us when we think about it. Comparing the technology of 10 years ago vs today (In 2022 technology should theoretically be 32x as powerful as in 2012): The iPhone 4s had just come out with newly introduced features such as the notification menu, app folders, and of course, Siri. Compare that to the iPhone 13 Pro Max that just came out this past September. Regarding cars, a 2012 model car may allow you to play music with Bluetooth, turn on an Eco mode that gives you better gas efficiency, and if you’re really lucky the car may have heated seats or a backup camera. Now look at today to see more and more cars adding autonomous lane-following and if you really want to see something interesting, look up videos of a Tesla dancing to “Carol of the Bells” as part of their latest Christmas software update.
Technology around us is growing faster than many can keep up with. Even cryptocurrency, something that many people currently find controversial will eventually be too lucrative to neglect and keep using paper money instead of. The world is constantly changing and adapting as society’s needs change and adapt. It becomes our choice whether we want to make the most of the resources that we have and learn and grow with technology or opt to live in the past.
Leveraging the Internet
There isn’t much debate that the internet is the greatest invention of the 21st century. Let’s take starting a business for example. Anyone who wanted to start a business before the rise of the Internet had to lease a workspace, hire employees, be fully committed to the business without any other jobs, and the list goes on of risks and liabilities that kept many people from starting a business. Today, all you really need to start a business is a computer. People now have the power to start a business for less of an investment (a domain is very much cheaper than land), with the ability to start small and scale up (no need to hire employees or stop working your full-time job until you want to), and your market is not just locals anymore but the entire world. The internet has allowed us to be connected with people across the world in an instant. One of the greatest human abilities is our ability to communicate. Sharing ideas and working together is how we’ve gotten to where we are today. And the internet has made that concept of communicating much more large scale.
Consumed by the Internet
Social Media
Ironically and unfortunately, the internet is also the worst invention of the 21st century. While boundless communication with anyone in the world can be a good thing, it can also be an extremely harmful thing. For starters, anyone who has not seen the documentary on Netflix, The Social Dilemma should watch it. You will see how the biggest social media and internet marketing companies spend billions to optimize their algorithms so they keep you clicking and scrolling through their apps and websites as long as possible. Most Americans (including myself) have daily mobile screen times above 5 hours. If we sleep for 8 hours and work for 8 hours and are on our phone for 5 hours, does that mean that our daily free time to do anything and everything else is 3 hours a day?
Scams
Every other YouTube ad seems like it is someone telling you about their new get-rich-quick product. I’ve even noticed that a lot of them now will try to convince you that all of the other ads are scams and theirs is the one legitimate one. Every other phone call seems like it is some manager from Norton Antivirus, Amazon, or the IRS telling you about a gift reward or a balance you owe that somehow totally slipped by you. These people will spend their whole day calling people until they find someone who doesn’t know enough about technology or the internet to see through their scams.
Cyberbullying
Unfortunately with something as shameful as bullying, the internet has found a way to mutate it into a completely different monster. While in my time in high school from 2015–2019 I did not personally see many people get physically bullied (obviously this may be very different for some of you) I did see a lot more cyberbullying and hate comments and physical fights started because of something said on Instagram or Snapchat. The internet has no accountability to it. No weight. When you say something mean about someone over a screen, you don’t feel the response. When you bully someone in person and get a face-to-face response from them and from others who saw you, you’re going to immediately feel how dirty it was for you to do that. With the internet, you have the ability to write the worst things ever, send it, and forget it, and go right back to your normal life. And bullies love that lack of accountability.
The internet is here to stay and so are its faults. Should we be worried about the future with the internet? I personally don’t think so. I think while there are specific components of the internet that draw worry, the solution is not to boycott it or rebel against it. The solution is to learn to use it in the right ways- the ways that help us live our lives to their maximum potential. The ways that allow us to do what humans are made to do: Communicate and grow with one another. The internet and modern technology are double-edged swords. With them, will you fight for prosperity or hurt yourself trying?
